Bangalore: All colleges in Karnataka will have to mandatorily establish a separate cell to receive and hear complaints of harassment, including sexual harassment of girl students and women lecturers.

A directive in this regard was issued by the state government on Thursday to all colleges, setting forth a 12 point set of guidelines to be followed.

The decision was arrived at after a recent meeting of Vice-chancellors, who favoured setting up of such a cell with principal and head of the educational institution at the helm.

"The committee shall have senior women lecturers, girl students, parents and eminent persons from society as its members," Minister for Higher Education C T Ravi said in a press conference here.

The cell should hold a sitting at least once a week and each college should also constitute a task force to ensure safety of women lecturers and girl students, he said.

The Cell and the task force should file a complaint immediately with police on receipt of information on any kind of harassment. In the event of the charges being prima facie proved, the accused staff member shall be placed under suspension pending an enquiry, Ravi said.

Workshops should be organised to promote sisterhood and brotherhood relationship among students, he said.

The "Search Committee" appointed to recommend a panel of names for appointing vice-chancellor to Mysore University met recently, but could not take a final decision, he said.

Its report had been sent to Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar for forwarding it to the Governor, Ravi said. A similar committee would be set up choose a Vice Chancellor to Bangalore University, he said.